?No need to thank me, Janina. It is what I expect from you. That is how I have taught you. Trust no one.?
She smiled. It was true.
?Do you think it necessary now for me to know everything??
?I think you need to know about Johnny Kleintjes.?
?Then you may tell me.?
She considered awhile, collecting her thoughts. The director would know of Inkululeko?s history back through the eighties, when the rumors in the leaders? circle of the ANC were put down to counterintelligence maliciously planted by the regime to damage the unity between Xhosa and Zulus in the organization. But even after 1992 the rumors persisted, the violence in Kwa-Zulu, the Third Force. And since the 1994 elections the feeling that the CIA were too well informed.
She tapped the dossier in front of her. ?Ismail Mohammed says in the interview that Inkululeko is a senior member of the intelligence arm. He says he has proof. He says Inkululeko is working for the CIA. Has been for years.?
?What proof??
?Not one big thing. Many small ones. You know the Cape Muslim extremists have connections with Qaddafi and Arafat and bin Laden. He says they deliberately fed misinformation into the system here and watched things unfold in the Middle East. He says there is no doubt.?
And we must assume they have decided to remove Inkululeko by giving us information.?
?We must consider that possibility at least, sir.?
He smoothed his tie slowly as if removing imagined wrinkles. ?I think I understand now, Janina. You fetched Johnny Kleintjes out of retirement.?
?Yes, sir. I needed someone credible. Someone who would have had access to the data.?
?You sent him to the American consulate.?
?Yes, sir.?
?He was to tell them he had data he wanted to sell. And if it had been me, I would have told Johnny to use the September eleventh attacks as motivation. Something like ?I can no longer sit back and watch these things happen while I have information that can help you.? ?
?Something like that.?
And the name of Inkululeko as an afterthought, an incidental extra??
She merely nodded.
?So that they can know we know. Clever, Janina.?
Apparently not clever enough, sir. It may have backfired on us.?
?I would guess you had a few names you wanted to experiment with, a few possible Inkululekos? To test reactions??
?Three names. And a lot of harmless information. If the Americans said the data is nonsense, we would know he is not one of those three. If they pay, we know we are on target.?
And my name was one of them.?
?Yes, sir. After Johnny?s visit to the consulate, the CIA reacted as we expected. They told Johnny not to make direct contact again, that the building is being watched. don'?t call us, we?ll call you. I arranged for his phone to be monitored. A week ago they called, a smokescreen for a meeting in the gardens at the art museum. There they asked Johnny to take the info to Lusaka.?
?What went wrong, Janina??
?We think Johnny used his own initiative, sir. We think the hard drive he took was empty. Or filled with pointless data.?
?Johnny Kleintjes,? said the director with nostalgia. ?I think he did not completely trust you, Janina.?
?It?s possible. It took a lot of persuading to get him to go along. The three names ??
?He knows all three.?
?Yes, sir.?
And he does not believe any one of the three is Inkululeko.?
?That?s right.?
?Typical of Johnny. He would want to check things through first. But with an escape route if the Yanks got serious.?
?I suspect Thobela Mpayipheli has the real hard drive.?
?The one you prepared.?
?Yes, sir.?
?And you do not want that data to reach Lusaka.?
?I thought we would stop Mpayipheli at the airport. I wanted to send the drive with one of my own people. That is still the plan.?
?More control.?
